STATE GOP ELECTS PARTY CHAIRMAN

California Republicans on Sunday turned to a familiar face to bolster the party in a state that once was a GOP stronghold but is now home to a powerful Democratic political machine.

More than 1,000 delegates to the state party’s spring convention elected former state lawmaker Jim Brulte as party chairman and charged him with repairing the state’s finances and image while recruiting a more diverse pool of candidates.

The hall in the Sacramento Convention Center erupted in applause when his election was announced. It was a rare moment of optimism for the party faithful, coming four months after an election that dropped Republicans to just a third of the state Legislature and cost them a handful of congressional seats.

The party holds no statewide office and dropped to less than 30 percent of all registered voters in California last year.

“If we are going to be successful at winning elections, we have to get out of our comfort zone and stop only talking to the choir and going and talking to the people who don’t necessarily share our views, because if we share not only our head, but we share our heart, we will make converts,” Brulte told the delegates after his election.

He said he will focus on fundraising and remaking the party’s voter outreach and candidate recruitment. Of particular concern is reaching Latinos, the fastest-growing segment of the electorate and a demographic that has generally shunned the party as its political clout has grown.

Brulte, from the Los Angeles suburb of Rancho Cucamonga, also promised to help the party regain seats in the Legislature, saying Democrats controlling both houses and the governor’s office “is a recipe for disaster.”

What happens in California is important to Republicans nationally because the state has the largest share of electoral votes, at 55. It has not voted for a Republican nominee for president since George H.W. Bush in 1988, and GOP registration has been sliding since it hit 40 percent in 1992.

The state party delegates also elected the first woman and first Sikh, Harmeet Dhillon, to serve as the party’s vice chairwoman. Dhillon, of San Francisco, wants the party to use technology to modernize its registration and outreach.